Chapter 1
I’m an attorney for Kreeger, Slater, and Arenhopper. Our firm has represented the estate of Elizaveta Borovsky since 1965.
In 1983, she passed away in her sleep in her home in Strang, Oklahoma. She was predeceased by her husband Isaak, and the whereabouts of her children are unknown.
According to her journal, she and her husband and children had been born in Russia before the 1917 Revolution. With the overthrow of Nicholas II no longer in doubt, the Tsarina, Alexandra, gave Elizaveta as many precious jewels and rubles as she could hide on her person. Elizaveta was one of Alexandra’s ladies in waiting and was loyal to the Tsarina to the very end - her journal tells of a relationship going far beyond that of a servant.
After the Tsar and his family were assassinated and ‘Order Number One’ came down, she knew she’d have to leave her beloved homeland and seek asylum in the West. She and her family traveled to Yalta, with the help of General Peter Wrangel, where they boarded a steamer that took them across the Black Sea, through the Phosphorus Straits and the Dardanelles. They eventually reached England, where several years later, the OSS and Catholic Church provided them with traveling papers for passage to America.
I might have dismissed Mrs. Borovsky’s writings as merely the fantasies of a love-sick peasant girl had I not found a false bottom in the trunk containing her journal. The items I found carefully packed away authenticated every word she had written. Precious jewels and rubles minted in the late nineteenth century bearing the countenance of Nicholas II were present. These items could have been purchased from a collector, of course, but the discovery of one of the Red Cross Faberge eggs honoring the royal family for turning the palaces into hospitals and their work treating and comforting wounded soldiers convinced me that Elizaveta Borovsky was for real. Her treasures are locked safely away in our vault. We still manage her estate while searching for her children.
Elizaveta’s story speaks of love and heartbreak, hope and fear. Her words also tell of royal blood eligible to claim the throne of Russia should its government ever return to the monarchy. CM
